Category: Miles

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Travel Tuesday were all good to manufactured spenders, but companies collectively decided that the next day should be called “Woeful Wednesday”. The punches kept coming with devaluations:

Surely there was some good news out there yesterday too, right? Well, Meijer tried to cheer us up with 50,000 MPerks points with a $500 third party gift card through December 16, but they limited it to one to MPerks account so here we are.

United tried to devalue business class meals with this, but it didn’t work because literally anything other than the old meal is an improvement.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you sent me an email, message, or something else over the last week and a half, I probably haven’t gotten to it yet. It’s not you, it’s me; well, it’s me and a disconnected international trip.

  1. Rakuten In-Store card linked offers has offers for:

    – 6% or 6x at Walgreens
    – 1% or 1x at Food Lion
    – 1% or 1x at Giant
    – 1% or 1x at Martin’s

    Remember, it’s not just credit cards that link to Rakuten. You’ve got to re-add the offer an hour after its first use, though any purchases within that hour are still active. These offers generally aren’t supposed to work for gift cards, but “supposed to” and “the real world” don’t always align. (Thanks to Douglas)
  2. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, formerly the Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, continues its predecessor’s reign in the Unsung Heroes realm, and it continues to taunt churners who don’t have the card since you can’t currently apply for it. Offers for those with the card were sent for:

    – $50 statement credit after $450 spend, twice monthly for three months

    For #mathchallenged: $50*2*3 =$300. Also, e^{i*\pi}=-1 (just thought you’d want to know). (Thanks to Adam)
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Staples.com has fee-free $200 virtual Visa electronic gift cards, limit five.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Giftcards.com has increased portal payouts like it’s going out of style, and some of those increased payouts will last through the week. The most interesting:

    – ShopBack: 5%
    – AA: 2.5x

    Use a referral for the first portal if you don’t already have account there and make a friend’s day.
  6. Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cards earn 5x at PayPal for the month of December only, and [checks notes] it’s now December. The $1,500 5x spend quarterly limit still applies.

Good luck on your buyer’s group and reselling activity today, and happy Monday!

Sometimes math is easy.

  1. US Bank has a double cashback promotion for its card linked offers and its shopping portal today through Friday.

    The portal and offers are hard to find and are quirky, so double check the US Bank portal cheat sheet if you’re not sure how to get there.
  2. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a tiered 15-25% transfer bonus to AirCanada Aeroplan through January 5, 2026:

    – 15%: transfer <= 74,000 miles
    – 20%: transfer between 74,000 miles and 174,000 miles
    – 25%: transfer >= 175,000 miles

    I think banks shouldn’t make you pull out a calculator for a transfer bonus personally, but welcome to #2025.
  3. The Chase Aeroplan Visa has a heightened sign-up bonus of 75,000+25,000+20,000 miles with tiered spend:

    – 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 25,000 miles after $20,000 spend in 12 months
    – 1.5x on 1x spend through January 15, 2026 up to 20,000 miles

    I think banks shouldn’t make you pull out a calculator for a sign-up bonus personally either, but welcome to #2025 again.
  4. The Rove shopping portal, notable for its transferability to Lufthansa Miles & More, has a promotion through Black Friday for 4x-5x at giftcards.com.

    If you’re not a member of Rove, use a friend’s referral link. If you don’t have a friend with Rove, reach out to me and I’ll send you a random churner’s link.
  5. Giftcards.com has a $10 gift card with the purchase of $100+ in Visa gift cards with promo code VISABOGO. This code is appearing on most shopping portals, so it should stack with portal earning.
  6. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  7. On December 1, Bilt will have a 50-100% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios depending on your Bilt status. Two things:

    – You’ve still got a few days to earn if this is interesting to you
    – To decide if it’s interesting, would you trade 1.50-2.00 Avios for a Hyatt point?

    Even with a big Hyatt balance, I’d generally still answer the second question with a definite “yuuup”.
  8. Royal Air Maroc has a paid status match opportunity for non-US frequent flyer elites (that is, they’re not matching US airline status). Matches to Gold ($349) get oneworld Sapphire and to Platinum ($749) get oneworld Emerald status though the end of 2026. 

    Both will get you access to AA and Alaska lounges even when flying domestically with either airline. (Thanks to David) 
  9. There are two niche hotel promotions, register for either or both if there’s any chance of you staying with either program in the next quarter:

    – Best Western: 5,000 bonus points for 2+ night stays through February 1, limit 20,000 points
    – Preferred Hotels: 35,000 bonus points after two night stays through June 30, 2026 booked by December 4

    I’ve been told Best Western has some really nice properties, but I’ve personally yet to see one. I can confirm however that Preferred Hotels does have some really nice properties.

Happy Wednesday, safe travels!

The kind of quirk you should expect from the US Bank shopping portal.

  1. American Express has a few generic links for targeted new card offers meant for existing card holders:

    – Business Gold: 125,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months
    – Business Gold: 200,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months

    If you’re targeted for both, I hope it’s obvious which one you should chose [both]. (Thanks to SideShowBob233)
  2. Meijer stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through November 11, limit one per digital coupon. With the right liquidation channels this deal can be worth traveling to Meijerland even if you’re nowhere near.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, though Meijer occasionally also sells Sunrise gift cards.
  3. Clear has a promotion for 5,000 bonus United MileagePlus miles for new memberships. Multiple Platinum cards with multiple players could make this worth your time, but you do you.

Happy Thursday!

SideShowBob233’s clown car runs into issues on its way to Mejierland.

  1. Do this now (if you have a pre-refresh Chase Sapphire Reserve card): Transfer all Ultimate Rewards from other accounts to your Sapphire Reserve account before Monday to make sure they’re eligible for 1.5 cents per point value on the Chase Travel portal. Points that show up after Monday aren’t eligible. UPDATE: Chase already started converting accounts as of October 25. In theory they’ll still work if earned or converted tomorrow, but I wouldn’t wait on it.
  2. On Tuesday we discussed mass shutdowns with Synchrony bank for those hitting dining promotions especially hard. Yesterday, Synchrony’s shutdown wave cast a much wider net and nearly all shutdown reports had seen floosie activity in the last six months. You do you, but if I were you and I’d been on the floosie bandwagon recently, I’d self-shutdown any remaining Synchrony cards.

    If you were shutdown by Synchrony, I’d also suggest applying again immediately for the same cards that were shutdown because #citigonnaciti (since I don’t have a synchrony hash tag) I guess.
  3. In April, American Express shut down quite a few churners for what turned out to be mostly related to third party payments routed through sketchy buyer’s groups. Yesterday, there was another mass wave for seemingly the same thing. If “miracle doctors and nurses” doesn’t mean anything special to you, you’re probably safe. If it does and you were involved, well, I hope you’ve self shutdown by the time you finish reading this post.
  4. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 25% transfer bonus to Southwest Rapid Rewards, bringing your redemption value in the 1.4 cents per point through November 6.

    The major utility in Rapid Rewards bookings vs Chase Travel portal bookings is cancelability with refunds on all booking classes.
  5. JetBlue TrueBlue points can now be used to book United metal flights. Pricing is decidedly “sub-mean but within tolerance”.
  6. I hesitate to mention this because it’s gotten so much undue press, most of it written to feed the content monster, but if you’re always probing you should know there’s a new thing to probe: American Express Business Gold cards now have a $150 credit at Squarespace, a website builder platform and hosting provider, registration required.

    I guess this is a free way to own some variation of sideshowbob233wasrightallalong.com on American Express’s dime (which is really your non-incremental dime).

Have a nice weekend friends!

A sub-mean but still within tolerance bomb can still send a message.

  1. Do this now: Enroll in your targeted Q4 United MileagePlay promotion. Mine was 5,000 bonus miles with a single trip in a premium seat with a base airfare of $200+ booked and flown by December 22.
  2. Do this now: Register for Accor ALL’s Q4 promotion for 2x points on 2+ night stays in North America and Brazil.

    Don’t worry guys, they have an Accor in Bentonville that’s a combination museum and hotel for extra culture and complimentary night time haunting.
  3. Kroger stores have 4x fuel points earning on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and fuel gift cards today through Sunday.

    The resale market for BestBuy, Home Depot, and Apple gift cards remains strong, and the resale market for fuel points, uhhh, is still present.
  4. TheGiftCardShop.com has fee-free custom Visa and Mastercard gift cards with promo code SHOPEARLY25 through November 16. Its sister site MasterCardGiftCard.com has 50% off of purchase fees with the same promo code in case you’re more concerned about capacity than cost.

    These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards.
  5. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins stores have 10x points on Zift Zillions gift cards through Thursday, and apparently there’s no limit on earn at Stop & Shop, but a limit on $2,000 spend at the other stores. Little brother Giant Food only earns 8x.
  6. The Celtic Bank Mesa Visa has a promotion for a free year of Instacart+ which stacks with Chase’s free memberships.

Have a nice weekend!

A combination museum and hotel’s night time lighting (I assume).

Background

The Wyndham Rewards program when tied with the Barclays Wyndham Business Earner Visa credit card used to be a heavyweight in terms of both earn and burn, but that’s changed due to:

– Continual Vacasa devaluations
– The loss of many Vacasa properties for points bookings
– The dwindling Vacasa footprint
– The loss of Caesar’s Diamond status matches

It doesn’t help that Wyndham points have a hard expiration of four years after earning regardless of account activity, so stuck points will eventually become forfeited points if you’re not careful.

The Way Out

United currently has a 25% bonus for incoming hotel points up to 25,000 total bonus miles, and Wyndham has a 100% transfer bonus for points transfers to United (registration required) through October 31. The regular transfer ratio is 5:1, and when you stack everything, it comes out to:

5 / 2 / 1.25 : 1 = 2 : 1
(or)
30,000 Wyndham → 15,000 United

Those United miles aren’t worth what they used to be, but they don’t expire and you’d probably rather not stay in an old Ramada next to a European airport anyway. Watch out on the Wyndham side though, based on the terms and conditions you may need to do each batch of transfers in a single transaction.

The Tweaks

The Wyndham Business Visa card still earns 8x at gas stations, so you’ve got an opportunity to earn 4x United miles (after conversion) at gas stations if you have the card. But, Wyndham to United transfers take a couple of weeks [UPDATE: Transfers are happening next day currently], so unless your Wyndham Business card statement closes in the next week or so, you may not be able to slide into the narrow window for United’s incoming transfer bonus, which would mean the you’d only get 12,000 miles for 30,000 Wyndham points, or 3.2x at gas stations.

My Action

Just because I’m doing something doesn’t mean you should to, in fact it probably means you shouldn’t. Anyhoodles, I’m sending all of my Wyndham points to United now, and I’m going to try and move my Wyndham statement closing date to next week and send everything new over before the deadline (Indiana Jones sliding under the concrete door style, but without all the leather). (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)

Happy Wednesday!

The way out is easy, just follow the signs.

  1. The American Express Hilton cards have increased sign-up bonuses, though the increased bonuses don’t make up for recent devaluations:

    – Honors: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Surpass: 155,000 points after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
    – Business: 175,000 points after $8,000 spend in six months

    These are available via referrals, use another player or another churner’s referral. Don’t apply head-on, make a churner’s day.
  2. It’s October transfer bonus time:

    – American Express 20% to AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue through October 31
    – American Express 30% to Marriott Bonvoy through November 30
    – Chase 30% to British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia Avios through October 31
    – Chase 80% to IHG through October 31
    – United 30% incoming transfer bonus from hotels, registration required, through October 31 (Marriott becomes 60,000:35,000)

    Even with the transfer bonuses IHG is an awful value, and Marriott Bonvoy is of dubious value, though it does offer a roundabout way to convert Membership Rewards to United MileagePlus which after the two bonuses will shake out to 1,000:758 (let’s call this a 6-7).

  3. Royal Jordanian is selling a 12 month long membership to oneworld airline lounges status match to oneworld Sapphire (Gold Sparrow) for $149. You can match with status from most non-oneworld airlines. Oneworld Sapphire gets access to AA and Alaska lounges when flying domestically, including AA Flagship lounges.

    The IATA code for Royal Jordanian is RJ (fixed, thanks to Kevin), which believe me will be helpful to know if you’re trying to use this for US domestic lounge access.
  4. Meijer MPerks has a clipable coupon for $10 off of $150+ in Mastercards through Tuesday.

    Meijer sells both Sunrise and Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. The Chase Sapphire Reserve’s Pay Yourself Back categories for Q4 are grocery, gas, department stores, and annual fees for 1.25 cents per point. The “select charities” option at 1.5 cents per point is still around too.
  6. American Express Offers has lots of new offers:

    – Viator $30 statement credit with $300+ through October 31
    – Best Western $50 statement credit with $250+ through December 31
    – Marriott Brands (various): $200-$300 off of $500-$750+ through December 31

    Most things bookable on airbnb experiences are also bookable on Viator, so you may find organic opportunity on that one.
  7. The Barclays Lufthansa Miles&More Mastercard has an all time high tiered sign-up bonus of 50,000+20,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days and $12,000 spend in the first year, respectively.

    There is a Swiss First niche where this card can make sense if you’re good at ignoring opportunity cost. Apropos of nothing, where are my FNBO JAL groupies at? (Thanks to pizza42bob)

Happy Thursday!

The Membership Rewards United backdoor, as a mug.